San Diego County’s Indian casino industry — the largest in the state — took a wallop during the Great Recession.

Expansion plans were scaled back, some casinos had layoffs, and one closed last year.

It’s because gambling is the most discretionary of spending - you’ll probably only risk your money if you can afford to lose.

“If you have to put a meal on your table or go gambling, most of us would choose to feed our families,” said Carl Winston, director of the hospitality and tourism management program at San Diego State University. “They shrank disproportionately to the rest of the economy.”

But now, the lights are flashing a bit brighter. New hotel towers are rising, and job ads are posted. One casino is hosting a hiring fair next week.

“I think there’s definitely a bottoming out that’s occurred over the last six to 12 months and I think that people are getting more comfortable,” said Harry Taylor, general manager of North County’s Casino Pauma, which has 420 employees and recently completed a casino renovation.

Statewide, revenue for the roughly 60 Indian casinos peaked at $7.8 billion in 2007 before falling each year and bottoming out at $6.8 billion in 2010, said Alan Meister, who produces Casino City’s annual Indian Gaming Industry Report. In 2011, the latest year of data available, revenue bumped back up to $6.91 billion. A good chunk of that revenue likely came from San Diego County’s nine Indian casinos, which cluster in its east and northeast regions.

“I think it’s good to have them so close together,” said Mike Caputto, director of human resources at Valley View Casino and hotel, of Valley Center, which has about 1,000 employees. “We have a lot of team members that work here. We have a lot of team members that come from the other properties. It’s just more variety.”

Altogether, the gaming venues account for around 11,500 jobs. If combined, the casino industry would be the fourth largest employer in San Diego behind Qualcomm’s 12,000 employees.

The tribes need people who live in San Diego County to fill those jobs.

Despite being sovereign, the majority of casino employees — 90 percent or more at many — are not members of the owning tribe. For example, the Barona tribe — totaling 500 people, including seniors and minors — has about 3,000 staffers at its Lakeside casino and resort hotel. The casinos offer other incentives to attract employees because the jobs generally aren’t high paying and the casinos are often remote.

The lights go up

The Indian casino industry in California got a boost in 1999, when about 60 tribes signed nearly identical compacts with Gov. Gray Davis, allowing slot machines and other Las Vegas styles of betting against the house. California voters then approved those compacts in 2000 through Proposition 1A. The agreements — later backed by the federal government — spelled out a variety of protections for the public, both customers and employees, and how casinos would make payments to the state.